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House presses ahead with Papua redistricting despite protests
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Papuan students protest against the government's plan to develop new administrative areas in the country's easternmost Papua province, in Malang, East Java, on March 21. (AFP/Putri)
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awmakers have pressed ahead with a plan to create new provinces in resource-rich Papua after securing support from local elites, as politicians aim to pass a set of bills that will lay legal groundwork for the major redistricting before they go into recess early next month.
On Tuesday, House of Representatives Commission II overseeing home affairs unanimously endorsed three bills to be passed into law at a House plenary session on Thursday. The bills will divide one of the two existing provinces in Papua into four new ones. The second, West Papua province, will be left as it is.
In an apparent bid to fast track the deliberations smoothly, lawmakers recently invited some senior Papua administration officials – who also represented Governor Lukas Enembe – and representatives from the provincial-level legislative council (DPRP). They won their support for the plan.
But critics insist that the invited Papuan elites do not represent voices at the grass roots who have rejected the plan over fears that it will be used as a pretext to tighten government control over Papua.
The government, meanwhile, has heard concerns about the major redistricting from the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP), which represents Papuan indigenous people and opposes the plan. But the government later sent a letter to the House to continue the deliberation of the bills.
The government's push to form new provinces in Papua intensified after the House passed a new law on Papuan special autonomy last year that bypasses the need for consultation with the MRP or the DPRP in the event of the creation of new administrative regions.
Read also: House seeks speedy deliberation to establish new provinces in Papua
